UA student seeks council seat

Wednesday

Apr 10, 2013 at 5:04 PM

By Jason Morton

TUSCALOOSA | A University of Alabama student is the first candidate to announce that he will seek the Tuscaloosa City Council's District 4 seat being vacated by Lee Garrison.Matt Calderone, 22, is attempting to follow the example set by Garrison, who also was 22 years old and a UA student when he was first elected to the City Council in 1997.Garrison, now 38, announced last week that he will not seek a fifth term on the council. Instead, he is running for Tuscaloosa City Board of Education chairman. The incumbent, Dan Meissner, has said he intends to run to retain his seat.Calderone, a Trussville native, said that his time here as a college student prepared him for a role as councilman.“Tuscaloosa, whether you're here for four years, five years or you choose to live here the rest of your life, this will always be your home,” he said. “Students on this campus care about this community and they want an advocate and they want a voice.“I hope to continue to enhance the relationship between the University of Alabama, the city of Tuscaloosa and the community as a whole.”Calderone worked as an intern at City Hall before the April 27, 2011, tornado, during which he was hired as an employee. He later returned to his intern role for a while longer, but since leaving his internship he has been a regular visitor to the council's Tuesday meetings.Calderone is also a former president of UA's Student Government Association.“My time as SGA president really reaffirmed my calling to do this,” Calderone said, noting that his yearlong role as president, which ended earlier this month, required him to work with students, community members and City Hall.Calderone is a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee, which was formed by the City Council in the wake of the 2011 storm to be a sounding board on recovery ideas and proposals.In a news release announcing his candidacy, Calderone said he is the founder and co-chair of the Downtown Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama Connection and Improvement Committee, which voices opinions to City Hall on matters pertaining to the area between downtown and the UA campus.Calderone said his goal — if elected — is to maintain and improve the partnership between the city of Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama while working with the business community to continue Tuscaloosa's growth.He also is a parent. Calderone is engaged to 23-year-old Claire Williams of Dothan, with whom he has a four-month-old daughter, Abigail Rose. “Service to others and to the community around me is what I have built my life around,” Calderone said in a statement. “After dedicating the past year to the University of Alabama as SGA president, it is my hope to continue to serve this city I love and particularly the residents of District 4.”